Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use clergy in a sentence

27 example sentences · noun

Clergy means a body of persons, such as priests, who are trained and ordained for religious service. Example: “Today we brought together clergy from the Anglican, Catholic, Orthodox, and Reformed traditions for ecumenical dialogue.”

Examples of clergy by meaning

nounA body of persons, such as priests, who are trained and ordained for religious service.

  • Today we brought together clergy from the Anglican, Catholic, Orthodox, and Reformed traditions for ecumenical dialogue.
  • Louis last week to settle the denomination’s stance on LGBT clergy and same-sex weddings.2019 March 3, Dakin Andone, “Fractured after vote against LGBT clergy, weddings, United Methodists face possible split”, in CNN, archived...

More sentences with clergy

  • The rustics doffed their hats at the clergy.From the entry doff
  • Several popes forbade attendance at masses celebrated by incelibate clergy.From the entry incelibate
  • Other Catholic clergy were sent overseas in various emissarial capacities as well.2007, Robert J. Miller, Both Prayed to the Same God, →ISBN. From the entry emissarial
  • The seating for honored persons (clergy) is at the liturgical west, opposite the entrance and lectern.2000, Mark L. MacDonald, The Chant of Life: Liturgical Studies Four, Church Publishing, Inc., →ISBN, page 98. From the entry west
  • The inner rhason corresponds to the cassock and, like it, is used by the secular clergy.1998, Encyclopaedia Britannica CD 98 Multimedia Edition. From the entry rhason
  • The attentions of passionate spinsters were an occupational hazard for all members of the clergy.1988, Susan Howatch, Glittering Images, →ISBN, page 10. From the entry occupational hazard
  • Clergy higher up the candle had different ideas.2022 May 27, Philip Goff, “Platinum Jubilee: The way we wore”, in Church Times. From the entry candle
  • Advowson is the right to appoint the incumbent clergy of a parish, so three advowsons meant three incumbents.2017, Ben Aaronovitch, The Furthest Station, Gollancz, page 88. From the entry advowson
  • The three estates of feudal lords, clergy and royal officers met in separate chambers, and exercised an advisory role.2011, Norman Davies, Vanished Kingdoms, Penguin, published 2012, page 202. From the entry estate
  • In the cemetery, the ostensorium, also known as a monstrance, will mark the grave of a member of the clergy.2009, Douglas Keister, Stories in Stone, page 150. From the entry ostensorium
  • The unpopular regular clergy were the worst affected.2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 201. From the entry regular
  • Church and state are completely separate but all clergy can be licensed as civil celebrants for legal purposes.1997, Helen Wilkinson, The Proposal: Giving Marriage Back to the People, page 41. From the entry celebrant
  • A respected member of the clergy and the community, Dimmesdale is a wonderful study in psychology anticipating the dark Dostoyevskyian reflections.1997, Indian Journal of American Studies, volume 27, page 4, column 1. From the entry Dostoyevskyian
  • Some clergy succumb to the temptation of being aginners.1988, R. Robert Cueni, What Ministers Can't Learn in Seminary: A Survival Manual for the Parish Ministry. From the entry aginner
  • The many versions of this story during the Middle Ages were probably spread by agelastic or misogelastic members of the clergy.1978, Evan Esar, The Comic Encyclopedia: A Library of the Literature and History of Humor Containing Thousands of Gags, Sayings, and…. From the entry misogelastic
  • Analarin, a priest, spoke of boxwood rattles, which were used to announce the clergy from the ninth century.1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 36. From the entry cresselle
  • It will be seen that what the defenders of Dali are claiming is a kind of benefit of clergy.1944, George Orwell, Benefit of Clergy: Some Notes on Salvador Dali. From the entry benefit of clergy
  • It was Big Business with its fear of femininity, it was the eunuchoid clergy capitulating to vulgar masculinity that made religion and art sissy things.1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 26. From the entry eunuchoid
  • There had been a series of such dispossessions since the beginning of Elizabeth's reign involving many clergy, particularly those of vehement Protestant sympathies.1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 462. From the entry dispossession
  • All wear this, but only the celibate priests and higher clergy may cover it with a large black veil (veghar) which hangs down behind.1913, Adrian Fortescue, The Lesser Eastern Churches, page 436. From the entry veghar
  • If the clergy would give him a voluntary gift, which was in no way to be considered a tax, he agreed to inlaw them.1911, Charles William Chadwick Oman, "English History", Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., Vol. IX, p. 497. From the entry inlaw
  • She was a Catholic, and that, added to the normal respect most officers have for the clergy, had led her to make a mistake a minor, nonirreparable one.2012, William Kienzle, Bishop as Pawn. From the entry nonirreparable
  • Goodrich, on of eleven crew members who became clergy members, spoke about the sea cards the students carried , the South American blueprints he keeps in his home.1997, Michigan History Magazine - Volume 81, page 37. From the entry sea card
  • Methodius returned to Moravia, but Rostislav died and under his successor Svatopluk the German clergy were once more in the ascendant, having obtained the support of the new pope.1984, S. C. Gardiner, Old Church Slavonic: An Eelementary Grammar, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. From the entry in the ascendant
  • The outer rhason, a wide-sleeved garment, is black in the Greek Church but variable in colour in the Russian Church among the secular clergy (i.e., those who minister in parishes).1998, Encyclopaedia Britannica CD 98 Multimedia Edition. From the entry rhason

Meaning of clergy

  1. noun A body of persons, such as priests, who are trained and ordained for religious service.

Full definition of clergy

Questions about clergy in a sentence

How do you use clergy in a sentence?
Clergy is used as a noun. For example: “Today we brought together clergy from the Anglican, Catholic, Orthodox, and Reformed traditions for ecumenical dialogue.”
What is a short sentence with clergy?
“Clergy higher up the candle had different ideas.”
What does clergy mean?
Clergy means a body of persons, such as priests, who are trained and ordained for religious service.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: clergy (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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